10 Most Evil Batman Villains

5. Black Mask

Black Mask announced himself to the world in Batman #386 all the way in 1985, but he wouldn't carve out a reputation as one of the Dark Knight's most fearsome foes until much later - or about a couple of decades or so after.

Apart from the mask, there was nothing much to distinguish Black Mask from Batman's other mob boss enemies. He was about as brutal as the Falcones and the Maronis, your Rupert Thorns and your Roland Daggetts, but he needed something else to give him the edge. Turns out that 'something else' involved him being really into making people suffer, with his most heinous act occurring during War Games, an arc that saw Black Mask attempt to assume control of all Gotham crime families.

Determined to discover Batman's role in the ensuing gang war, Black Mask apprehends Stephanie Brown - then going by the identity of Spoiler - and tortures her until she reveals the information. It's a gruesome, overdrawn sequence that leaves Stephanie at deaths door, but it wouldn't be the only time Mask displayed his capacity for sadism.

During a confrontation with Catwoman, Black Mask once kidnapped Selina Kyle's brother and sister, killed the brother, and forced her sister to eat the corpse. Yuck.